Flipkart was founded in
2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, both alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology
Delhi. They had been working for Amazon.com previously.
The business was formally incorporated as a company in October 2008 as Flipkart
Online Services Pvt. Ltd. During its initial years, Flipkart focused only
on books, and soon as it expanded, it started offering other products like
electronic goods, air conditioners, air coolers, stationery supplies and life style
products and e-books. The first product sold by them was the book Leaving
Microsoft To Change The World, bought by VVK Chandra from Andhra Pradesh. Flipkart
now employs more than 9000 people. Flipkart allows payment methods such as cash on delivery, credit or debit card
transactions, net banking, e-gift voucher and card swipe on delivery.

According to Alexa
Internet, Flipkart's website is one of the 10 most visited websites in
India. Flipkart has launched its own product range under the name
"DigiFlip", offering camera bags, pen-drives, headphones, computer
accessories, etc.

Legally, Flipkart is
not an Indian company since it is registered in Singapore and majority of its
shareholders are foreigners. Because foreign companies are not allowed to do
multi-brand e-retailing in India, Flipkart sells goods in India through a
company called WS Retail. Other third-party sellers can also sell companies too
can sell on the Flipkart platform.

Initially, the founders
had spent 400,000 to
set up the business. Flipkart has later raised funding from venture
capital funds Accel India (US$1 million in 2009) andTiger
Global (US$10 million in 2010 and US$20 million in June 2011). On
24 August 2012, Flipkart announced the completion of its 4th round of $150
million funding from MIH (part of Naspers Group)
and ICONIQ Capital. The company announced, on 10 July 2013, that it has
raised an additional $200 million from existing investors including Tiger
Global, Naspers, Accel Partners and Iconiq Capital.

Flipkart's reported
sales were 40 million
in FY 2008–2009, 200
million in FY 2009–2010 and 750
million for FY 2010–2011. In FY 2011–2012, Flipkart is
set to cross the 5 billion
(US$100 million) mark as Internet usage in the country increases and people get
accustomed to making purchases online. Flipkart projects its sales to
reach 10 billion
by year 2014. On average, Flipkart sells nearly 20 products per minute and
is aiming at generating a revenue of 50 billion
(US$0.81 billion) by 2015.